” Hillary tried to pull a fast one on Iowa voters but was caught in the act. She was pictured sitting down and having a discussion with 3 “ordinary Iowans.” Only thing is, they weren’t so ordinary:

The meeting in a coffee shop in LeClaire, Iowa (Sound familiar? That’s the home of American Pickers) was supposed to be a chance meeting between Hillary Clinton and three ordinary Iowan citizens. The three “ordinary” Iowans turned out to be Austin Bird, a former Clinton campaign intern, Carter Bell, University of Iowa College Democrats president, and Planned Parenthood of the Heartland staffer Sara Sedlacek.

It wasn’t an accident either. Hillary campaign staffer, Troy Price arranged the entire thing. He called Bird and arranged for the three to meet him at the Village Inn in Davenport, Iowa.”

” Tired of working minimum-wage temporary jobs in his hometown of Chicago, Michael Sanchez-Ratliff took his grandfather’s advice and embarked on a cross-country trip last March that he hoped might change his life.

The plan: Hitch a ride with a family friend to California, visit relatives and check out community colleges there.

Sanchez-Ratliff, then 20, did something that in hindsight wasn’t the best idea, but isn’t illegal. He took with him his entire life savings, including about $14,000 provided by his grandmother and an additional $5,000 he had saved from working.”

” The much-anticipated trip took an unexpected turn about eight hours in, as flashing lights appeared in the rear-view mirror. A Pottawattamie County sheriff’s deputy stopped the vehicle for traveling 5 miles per hour over the speed limit.

An hour later, the deputy seized Sanchez-Ratliff’s cash. Despite a clean criminal record and a search that turned up no sign of drugs or other illegal activity, the deputy concluded the money must somehow be linked to a crime.

Sanchez-Ratliff is hardly alone.”

The Register continues …

” A Des Moines Register investigation into the use of state and federal civil forfeiture laws in Iowa reveals that thousands of people have surrendered their cash or property since 2009. The system is stacked against property owners while raising millions of dollars annually for law enforcement agencies across the state, something critics contend encourages policing for profit over promoting public safety.

The bulk of forfeitures reviewed by the Register resulted from traffic stops, often for minor violations and involving vehicles with out-of-state plates. But cash or property also was seized after police were called or sent to homes or businesses. In a few cases, police seized cash carried by johns caught up in prostitution stings.

Among the Register’s findings:

• Law enforcement agencies in all but seven of Iowa’s 99 counties have used the state’s civil forfeiture law since 2009. They have seized cash or other property 5,265 times. At least 542 more cases have used federal forfeiture laws.

• Many of those property owners — including Sanchez-Ratliff — are sent on their way after surrendering their cash or other property. A sampling of about 600 forfeiture cases from the Iowa counties that seized the most property over the past six years revealed dozens of instances with no record of an arrest or criminal charges.

• Iowa police departments and other law enforcement agencies have seized nearly $43 million over the past six years — money divided among agencies involved in each forfeiture case. Under law, the money is supposed to be used to “enhance” their crime-fighting capabilities.

• Most of the money is used to buy equipment, train officers and fund multiagency task forces. But it also has been spent on tropical fish, scented candles, mulch and other items that appear to have little or no direct link to law enforcement activities.

Local law enforcement agencies generally keep 90 percent of forfeited cash, split among the agencies that seized the property. The rest goes to the state, for use by the Iowa Attorney General’s office and the state’s public safety departments.”

The Des Moines Register offers a serious investigation into the blatantly unconstitutional process of stripping law abiding citizens of their money and possessions without due process , otherwise known as “civil” asset forfeiture . Read the whole thing and remember this is not an issue limited to Iowa , your state is doing it too .

Civil asset forfeiture reform now . Every “war” results in a loss of freedoms but none so much as the “war on drugs” .

” While at a rest stop outside Richmond, Va., truck driver Kevin Kimmel caught a glimpse of a distraught-looking young woman behind the curtain of a recreational vehicle. Kimmel became suspicious and called the police. Jon Burkett reports.”

Warren has said she doesn’t plan to challenge Clinton, though several others have indicated that they are looking at a bid, including Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

The poll of 400 conducted Jan. 30 to Feb. 5 put Warren ahead of Clinton in Iowa, 31 percent to 24 percent. In New Hampshire, her lead is 30 percent to 27 percent.

The groups cautioned that the poll mostly shows that voters are extremely open to her candidacy rather than her being a Clinton killer. They hope to use the poll to encourage Warren to change her position and get into the race.”

” As anyone who has grown up around snow knows, part of the fun of sledding is the risk of soaring off a jump or careening around a tree.

But faced with the potential bill from sledding injuries, some cities have opted to close hills rather than risk large liability claims.

No one tracks how many cities have banned or limited sledding, but the list grows every year. One of the latest is in Dubuque, Iowa, where the City Council is moving ahead with a plan to ban sledding in all but two of its 50 parks.

” We have all kinds of parks that have hills on them,” said Marie Ware, Dubuque’s leisure services manager. “We can’t manage the risk at all of those places.”

A study by Columbus, Ohio-based Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital found that between 1997 and 2007, more than 20,000 children each year were treated at emergency rooms for sledding-related injuries.”

Escritt, unconscious, falls backwards to the floor, limp. His head bounces on the tile. Three days later, in an Omaha hospital, Escritt dies.

That video recording of the Sept. 25 incident shows Escritt instigated the confrontation that led to his death, at an Omaha hospital, and is the key evidence that led Pottawattamie County Attorney Matt Wilber to drop a felony assault charge against Teer.”

” A central Iowa Boy Scout troop just returned from a three-week trip they will likely never forget.

About 10 days into the trip, an innocent action by one of the nearly two dozen Scouts at the Canadian border into Alaska set off a chain of events that lead to a U.S. border official pointing a gun at a scout’s head.

Boy Scout Troop 111 Leader Jim Fox spelled out what happened to him and the Mid-Iowa Boy Scout Troop 111 as four van-loads of Scouts and adult volunteers tried to drive from Canada into Alaska.

Fox said one of the Scouts took a picture of a border official, which spurred agents to detain everyone in that van and search them and their belongings. “

This is national security in Obama’s Amerika … Threaten unarmed boy scouts and grandmas and run from illegal immigrants and drug mules …

” Moving along to the subject of today’s absurdity, the tiny city of Washington, Iowa with a population of 7,000 and 11 police officers, will be receiving a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle. Yes, they will be employing one of these in the field:

These things normally cost $500,000, but will be given to Washington, Iowa for free under a Defense Department program that gives surplus military equipment to domestic law enforcement.

Matthew Byrd writes in the Daily Iowan that:

Sometimes the news is just so drearily awful that you have to sit back and almost appreciate the pure comedy induced by it.

Take this item from Washington, Iowa, where the local police have recently acquired an MRAP vehicle (short for Mine Resistance Ambush Protected) through a Defense Department program that donates excess vehicles originally produced for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to local police departments across the United States, including other Iowa towns such as Mason City and Storm Lake.

The MRAP weighs an impressive 49,000 pounds, stands 10-feet tall, and possesses a whopping six-wheel drive. Originally designed to resist landmines and IEDs, it sure seems like the MRAP will come in handy for the notorious war zone otherwise known as Washington County, Iowa.

If you’re having a bad day, I highly recommend watching a video produced by the Des Moines Register in which Washington police officials try to justify the possession of a vehicle it clearly has no use for. “

” Judicial Watch put two states and the nation’s capital on notice that it will file a federal lawsuit if they don’t clean up their voter registration rolls within 90 days.

Iowa, Colorado and the District of Columbia have one thing in common — they have more registered voters than people eligible to vote.

In a Monday press briefing, Judicial Watch officials said they sent letters to the secretaries of state in Iowa and Colorado and the Board of Elections supervisors in the District of Columbia, saying:

We write to bring your attention to violations of Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act (“NVRA”) … This letter serves as statutory notice that Judicial Watch will bring a lawsuit against your office if you do not take specific actions to correct these violations of Section 8 within 90 days. In addition, by this letter we are asking you to produce certain records to us which you are required to make available under Section 8(i) of the NVRA. We hope that litigation will not be necessary to enforce either of these claims.”

” More than 1,000 people reported seeing a fireball in the skies over Iowa and Minnesota on December 26, with footage of the incident being captured by security cameras and the National Weather Service (NWS), various media outlets reported over the weekend.

According to Adam Withnall of The Independent, eyewitnesses reported that the object was approximately as bright as the sun, and was visible shooting across the sky for several seconds before it suddenly appeared to break apart.

The ball of light was also reportedly emitting sonic activity similar in nature to previously confirmed meteor sightings, Withnall added. While it is believed that it was indeed a meteor, that has not yet been officially confirmed.”

” When James Comstock refused to purchase his 19-year-old son cigarettes, the teenager drove off in his father’s truck. Attempting to teach his rebellious son a lesson, Comstock phoned the police to report his vehicle stolen.

This lesson ended with the police fatally shooting the his son, Tyler, on the Iowa State University campus.

As Ames Police Officer Adam McPherson pursued Tyler across the ISU campus, he allegedly rammed into McPherson’s car. The lawn care truck was eventually stopped, although police claim Tyler revved the engine and refused to turn off the vehicle.

McPherson fired six shots into the vehicle, striking the teen twice and killing him, according to the Iowa state medical examiner’s office. “

” The student debt crisis continues to grow larger and more dangerous with each passing school year. The skyrocketing price for a college degree is causing an epidemic with student loans as more people rack up unsustainable amounts of debt to further their education. Using debt to obtain a degree can be beneficial if done properly, but there are certainly some states worse off than others when comparing debt to earnings .

With lenders handing out loans like candy, the amount of student loan debt in America has nearly doubled in the past five years, from $550 billion in late 2007 to $986 billion in the first quarter of 2013. In fact, two-thirds of recent graduates have student loans, with an average balance of more than $27,000, according to a new report from the Joint Economic Committee.”

” Madrid – An Iowa woman was saved from a vicious attack by a dog which had ripped her nose off, when her husband leapt to her defence and bit the dog.

The Independent reported Caren Henry was assaulted by a 50 pound Labrador as she walked her pet beagle.

Caren described the attack which took place in rural Madrid to KDVR. She said:“This dog came racing across this yard, a big dog. It got me here and I had my sunglasses on which I’m glad I did because I think it might have taken my eye as well as my nose, then it knocked me down and then it went after my dog.”

” About 200 people evacuated the Raymond James building on Seabreeze Boulevard for more than an hour on Monday morning after two men called a bank and demanded money, threatening to detonate a bomb, police say.”

” The Iowa sheriffs who oversee the counties of O’Brien and Woodbury have caused a stir with their decision to trash carry permit applications once they’re processed, instead of saving them for the three-year period that the Iowa Department of Public Safety recommends.

Why is this a big deal? Put another way, does it even matter that these counties destroy the applications once a gun owner has been issued or denied a carry permit?

Ross Loder of the Iowa Department of Public Safety told the Des Moines Register that while junking the paperwork that is supposed to be part of the public record isn’t illegal, it’s not the preferred protocol given the following concerns:”

“To see why the choice of Clint Eastwood as the surprise guest speaker at last night’s close of the
Republican Convention was so brilliant, look at the electoral map.

The Democrats, thanks to their dominance of the big cities, control the West Coast and the Northeast — plus (as long as the dead voters of Cook County can still get to the polls) President Obama’s home state of Illinois. The GOP dominates the South, the Plains and the Rocky Mountain states.”